The lower house of the Czech parliament has approved a bill that would provide compensation to the victims of the 1968 Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia.
The bill, which still needs the approval of the upper house, the Senate, would provide up to $6,600 in compensation for families of the dozens of people killed in the invasion, and lesser amounts for those raped or injured.
Czech authorities say about 72 people were killed throughout Czechoslovakia during the invasion. Soviet troops (joined by units from Bulgaria, East Germany, Hungary and Poland) entered what was then Czechoslovakia on August 20, 1968.
The invasion crushed the liberalization program under Czechoslovak Communist Party leader Aleksander Dubcek. The invasion restored a hard-line communist government, which fell during the 1989 peaceful revolution in the country. Czechoslovakia split peacefully into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.
Some information for this report provided by AFP and AP.